Former Hollywood Stuntman Attempting To Make Movie About Motorcycle Road Racing

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James LaVitola, a former Hollywood stuntman whose work includes Friday Night Lights, The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift and the first Transformers movie, is attempting to make a movie about motorcycle road racing, oddly titled “Trackdays, The Movie.” However, he’s attempting this without help from the major studios and is need of financial assistance.

“I went to one of the studios [with the idea about a movie on motorcycle road racing] and they said there wasn’t a market for it,” LaVitola told Roadracing World. “Actually, they said there wasn’t a market for a movie about motocross because they didn’t understand the difference between the two.” This was the impetus LaVitola needed to start his quest.

He has a lofty $2 million goal for this project, but is seeking exposure — and hopefully funding — in two ways. First, he has taken to the popular crowd sourcing website Kickstarter (click the link to visit his page). On the Kickstarter page you can find more information behind LaVitola, his team and his mission, as well as a trailer to the movie. The deadline for raising the money is June 11 at 3:35pm EDT.

Second, LaVitola will be on the ABC television show Shark Tank on May 10 to pitch his idea in front of a panel of successful businessmen and women in the hopes one of them will want to help finance the project. As an added bonus, even if LaVitola fails on the show, the added exposure will help draw attention to his cause.

Filming has already concluded on Shark Tank, but LaVitola is bound by confidentiality agreements not to talk about it until after the air date. Producing this movie will be Brian Pitt and Cliff Dorfman will be the screenwriter for the film. Previously, he’s been a screenwriter for the hit HBO show Entourage.

Ultimately, the crew have a goal to raise $15 million, but will raise the remaining funds after production starts on the film. According to LaVitola in the report from Roadracing World, “he [Pitt] said we only have to raise about 20% of what the actual budget would be in capital because the rest he can get in tax incentives and gap loans, sponsors and everything else. So he said, ‘We need to raise $5 million to make a $15 million picture that I’ll make look like a $40 million picture.’”

Assuming everything goes to plan, the expected release date for the film is 2015. You can view the trailer below.

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